New Age Classrooms: Ergonomic Work Stations and Developmentally Friendly Playgrounds

One goal of education and a leading component of 'No Child Left Behind' planning involves integrating technology into the classroom. However, how will budget strapped school districts effectively design new schools to integrate technology and become valuable components of the learning process? Most classrooms are not designed to be both a center of learning and a center of technology; '...that schools are not preparing for the 21^st century classroom...Schools and systems of all sizes are continuing to plan in a traditional fashion that will not support the inevitable changes that are occurring in teaching and learning...' (Rogers, 2005). Are schools being built to incorporate, utilize and help teachers and students learn with technology?

The Gates Foundation and Other Philanthropic Organizations

One of the biggest complaints concerning the goals outlined by the 'No Child Left Behind' program has been the lack of funding provided on the Federal level for Education. Increasingly, schools are turning to private sources for money to rebuild schools or redesign technology. There are several organizations but few have received as much publicity as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. One of the Foundation's central themes is that 'millions of people do not have access to the powerful information that others readily access through computers and the Internet' (Gates Foundation, 2007) and that our schools needs to provide access to information for our Nation's children.

The Gates Foundation has set forth the idea that high schools need to be redesigned into smaller and more focused learning communities. Billions of dollars are being spent to change our schools into effective centers of learning but the struggle has gone on for more than a decade with inconclusive results. Part of the problem is that schools are not designed to allow students to become an active part of the learning process. In fact, 'there are not nearly enough good schools' (Colby, Smith and Shelton 2005) to meet the anticipated needs of increasingly competitive global culture. The Gates Foundation has had to resort to funding one of kind schools that are still experimental; 'The fact that so many of the successful and redesigned schools have been one-off, isolated experiments magnifies the confusion.' (Colby, Smith and Shelton, 2005). Researchers are still debating on why one design works and one design fails; 'Everybody knows that certain schools work; but exactly what is working or how the success of one school can be replicated ...is much less clear' (Colby, Smith, Shelton, 2005). What are the components of a technologically capable school?

Designing the perfect learning center for education is a dream for many researchers. What are some of the components of a learning center? A possible answer can be found by looking at research on brain development; '...brain research suggests that the brain learns best when confronted with a balance between stress and comfort...Practically speaking, this means as designers and educators need to create places that are not only safe to learn, but also spark some emotional interest...' (Lackney, 2002). There are other findings that give clues about learning environments and the brain; 'Another general finding from brain research is that the brain is a pattern maker....The implications for learning and instruction is that presenting a learner with random and unordered information provides the maximum opportunity for the brain to order this information and make meaningful patterns...' (Lackney, 2002).

Unfortunately, brain and neural pattern research is a young science. There is considerable debate about the use of effective use of technology in the classroom and whether or not technology can also be harmful to young minds; ' "quotes Larry Cuban as saying that there "is no clear, commanding body of evidence that students' sustained use of multimedia machines, the internet...has any impact on academic achievement"... Undoubtedly, anyone attempting to craft a polemic can argue that the body of evidence is not sufficiently clear... Cuban (2001) himself has stated that the literature is "filled with studies that demonstrate more students leaning through use of computers"...' (Clements and Sarama, 2001). Brain research may give a few pointers on what to include in the classroom but results are inconclusive as to what helps a student learn.

The National Education Association promotes a healthy balance of exercise and play as part of the learning environment; 'For young children, who have twice as many neurons as adults, play, exercise, experience, and challenge are major sources of learning. Yet schools for young children are often designed contrary to how children learn' (Chan and Petrie, 1998). In addition, schools need to include the stimulating effects of a learning environment that; 'supports art and music programs.... In well designed schools, both the architecture and landscaping are aesthetically stimulating. Such school environments engage, challenge, and interact with brain growth.' (Chan and Petrie, 1998) . Another area of critical school for school design is the layout of the classroom itself; during the analysis of one particularly popular science laboratory arrangement, it appeared that some students had disproportionately lower grades when their seats were located in those portions of the room where the seating view angle to multimedia is extreme...' (Hill and Cohen, 2005).

Technology comes in many forms. A technology integrated classroom needs to combine various forms of technology to create a stimulating educational environment for the student. Individualizing the educational experience is a useful component of the technological learning environment; ...we are embarking upon an education era- in which it will become increasingly important to envision the teacher and the microcomputer as partners in constructing micro-educational learning environments...' (Behrmann, 2002). If the computer is to be the centerpiece of the learning environment how are budget strapped schools going to afford enough computers for every student?

Fortunately, there are some simpler solutions to cost effective methods of introducing technology into the school environment. Newer wireless technologies offer hope to schools without adequate building capabilities or funds; '...In older buildings, wireless implementations may cost only about a fifth of what a school would spend on retrofitting for traditional installation...' (Roberts, 2005). Also, a well planned school can be cost effective; 'In short, a thorough understanding of high school learning process and culture played a strategic role in better aligning the campus master plan to the factors appearing to influence grade level achievement and student academic performance. Interestingly, the final construction solution was 70,000 square feet smaller than the earlier alternatives under consideration...' (Hill and Cohen, 2005).

Integrating technology into the classroom is not enough to creative a stimulating learning environment. However, integrating brain development studies, system design approaches and lower cost solutions can help to create a sufficiently challenging learning environment for the child. Many school Districts around the world have begun to understand the need to design a school that is a completely integrated technologically sound learning center and have developed checklists; 'Schools should:

v Be a delightful and relaxing place to learn...

v Feel fresh, safe...

v Not consist of squares or oblongs- no straight lines;...

v Have different zones for different work...

v Use new technology, new furniture..., new ideas

v Use solar and wind power...' (Millband, 2004)

How will budget strapped school districts effectively design new schools to integrate technology and become valuable components of the learning process is open to debate. School Districts need to realize that technology can be cost effective and education should be designed around the needs of the child and the teacher not simply district policy. 'The Newschools venture fund, the Bridgespan group, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have been working with a wide range of school development organizations..... In the process, we have identified two levers that appear to play a critically important role in determining how quickly....schools and design models can be replicated. One is the degree of managerial support... The other is specificity of the school design.' (Colby, Smith and Shelton, 2005). We can create learning environments for the future of our children if we can focus school policy and design into a coordinated plan with teachers and students.

References:

Behrmann, M.M.(2002). ATACP On-Line. AT for Students with Mild Disabilities, retrieved January 15, 2006 from http://www.csun.edu/codtraining/atacp/supplements/gph7.html

Chan, T. C. and Petrie, G.F..(1998) National Education Association. The Brain and Well-Designed School Environments. Retrieved February 1, 2006 from http://www.nea.org/teachexperience/braik030312.html

Clements, D. H and Sarama, J (2001). Educational Technology Review Strip Mining for Gold: Research And Policy in Educational Technology - A response to "Fool's Gold"Retrieved February 2, 2006 from http://www.aace.org/pubs/etr/issue4/clements.cfm

Colby, S., Smith, K. and Sheton, J. (2005). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Expanding the Supply Of High-Quality Public Schools retrieved February 1, 2006. from http://www.gatesfoundation.org/nr/downloads/ed/ExpandingtheSupplyofHighQualityPublicSchools.pdf

Hill, F. and Cohen, S. (2005). School Facilities School Design Impacts upon Cognitive Learning. Retrieved February 2, 2006 from http://www.schoolfacilities.com/_coreModules/content/contentDisplay.aspx?contentID=1792

Lackney,.J.A. (2002). Design Share 12 Design Principles on Brain-based Learning Research. Retrieved February 2, 2006 from http://www.designshare.com/Research/BrainBasedLearn98.htm

Millband, D. (2004). Innovative designs for schools Classrooms of the Future retrieved February 2, 2006 From http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/4032/Classrooms%20of%20the%20Future.pdf

Rogers.V. (2005). Some Efficient and effective classroom designs that accommodate technology for Promoting learning retrieved February 2, 2006 from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/2c/72/18.pdf